What do colleges care about most? ?

Question

I am a junior. I have good grades (straight A's 2nd semester sophomore year), I run track in the winter and spring, I used to play interscholastic soccer and now play intramural soccer, I tutor inner-city kids, I'm an active part of French club and could be a co-head this year, I am very passionate about the French language/culture and have taken part in fundraisers, scored high nationally in the national contest, and have participated in a cultural exchange in which i hosted a French friend and traveled abroad over the summer. I plan on being a student teacher assistant for French class senior year. I wrote for the newspaper the last 2 years, but think i am unable to do so this year. What other activities should i do/do i need to prepare for college? What do they look for? I was thinking of taking up cross country, but right now i need to focus on ACT and SAT studying, as well as high level classes, so I just plan on doing track again 2nd semester (is that ok?).

Answer 1

You are fine. Do really well on your ACT or SAT (whichever one you will take). If its the ACT try to keep it above 20. SAT above 800. Those are the basic numbers. Also, try some community service, I had over 200 hours when I started and a 29 ACT and I was accepted no prob., and I didn't do all the other stuff you have except I played football. You will be fine, man.  

Answer 2

Grades and experience in extracurricular activities.

Answer 3

Donate an hour of your time everynight to study for the ACT and SAT. the ACT is not really hard at all, in fact I didn't study for it and I still scored high. The SAT is what you should be worried about. (in terms of college preparedness tests)

Continue to do track.

If you can, write for your newspaper again in your senior year.

Look into chess club. It's so cliche, but seriously, I started the Chess Club at my high school and because of that- I got a ton of scholarships.

Not only that, it looks good.

As far as high level classes, start taking the ones that pretain to the major you want and the ones that you need for graduation. AP classes are a great way to save time and money for the future. But don't waste your time in high school with them. For example, when I was in High School I took AP environmental science- it wasn't required for graduation and it had nothing to do with what i wanted to major in college... so I have those credits but they mean nothing. lol... make sure that doesn't happen to you. There's a good bit of foresight involved, but i think you can manage.

Colleges want well-rounded students with good grades. Try doing some community service in addition to you clubs and sports. Colleges love that. Good luck!

Answer 4

taxes

Answer 5

Samuel, it is more important to have a passion for one or two things than to use the "shotgun approach" to extracurricular activities.

Right now I think you are correct in applying yourself to getting high ACT and SAT scores.  Colleges will look closely at that too.

Good luck, sounds as though you'll go far...

Answer 6

all colleges care about is money...

Good grades and lots of extra curriculars are key though. Do as well as you can on the SATs but they dont focus on only the score. It's a combination of a lot of things.

Answer 7

If you've done sports in high school, colleges will LOVE that.  Clubs are another extremely imporant factor when colleges are deciding upon your admission.  SAT scores are important too, but I wouldn't even bother taking the ACT unless you KNOW you will do good on it.

The ACTs were really hard and most colleges don't really care about them, I think.

As long as you have extra-curricular activities, a good GPA, and a good SAT score, you should be fine.

Answer 8

That really depends on what school you want to go to. Some schools are more strict than others. So, I can't really give you a definite answer. But if your looking to go to some school like Harvard or Yale. Focus on grades and ACT.

But I suggest doing some research on what colleges you want to go to.

Answer 9

The money!!!

Answer 10

you need to help the needy like the poor they really care about that or clean up a park they will take one look at that and say yay

Answer 11

Very good work but you should take some advance classes and do some volunteer work they like that a lot trust me i just applied and they said i didn't have any so yea

Answer 12

colleges care about your money.  If you had poor grades but made serious donations to the school you would get in.

Answer 13

really it depends on what college you want to go to. see ivy leauge colleges for ex. dartmouth and columbia they require good grades and a great personality, people who arent all about grades but actually go out and party you know, can actually have fun. other schools its about grades and community.